


excerpt: unnamed AU

by littletrenchcoatangel



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Florist AU, M/M, Pre-Slash, im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 14:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3252626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littletrenchcoatangel/pseuds/littletrenchcoatangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So what am I wearing?" Chuck asks. He pulls on some briefs, then turns to Raleigh, spreading his arms wide.</p><p>Raleigh makes a face, then just stares at Chuck.</p><p>"Uh... Becket?"</p><p>"Shit," he mutters. "I don't know. Something nice. That doesn't make you look like you're trying to look nice. This is a surprise lunch. So, uh, dress... surprised?"</p><p> </p><p>OR: two scenes from the "rent-a-boyfriend who is a maybe-florist/maybe-undercover cop/maybe-i-don't-know-what AU" that I've been working on for all of forever</p>
            </blockquote>





	excerpt: unnamed AU

**Author's Note:**

> this has been sitting in my drafts foR TWELVE YEARS. not actually. but it's something i started writing back when pacrim was still The Big Thing. which clearly hasn't been for a while (it's still a Big Thing in my heart, okay. IT'S STILL A BIG THING.)  
> but. yo. conteeeeeext
> 
> \- chuck is a florist. OR IS HE??? yes. for... all intents and purposes. tbh i don't know. the title of the file this came from (which is longer than what i'm showing you but i just wanted to know if anyone is interested in the thing) is like 12000 words and is just a list of all the aus that this could possibly be. which is tOO MANY.  
> \- raleigh is. something. i don't know. but he's as bad at relationships as chuck is at feelings and he pays people to impress his family. which is basically a gaggle of teenage girls and old women who are way too obsessed with raleigh's love life.  
> \- yancy is a dork-tective. who has tRUST ISSUES and is what i like to refer to as 'the atlas holding up the becket family's wORLD OF PROBLEMS'. my baby.  
> \- yes?  
> \- yes.  
> \- clearly i know very little about the universe i'm creating but wHATEVER these nerds are gay and dorky what more do you want from me

"So when are you two getting hitched?"

"What?"

"You and my brother. You're as in love as two assholes could ever be, from what I can tell."

"Yeah, I don't know if we're there yet, mate."

"That's a shame," Yancy says. He waits until they're out of everyone else's earshot before he speaks again. "How much is he payin' you?"

"I'm sorry?"

Yancy turns to face him, gets up close to him so his face is only inches away. "Look, kid. My brother hasn't been able to hold down a stable relationship for a  _week,_ let alone the six months you two are playing for. He knows that, and I know that, and I'm willing to bet that  _you_ would know that if you were really dating. And," Yancy lowers his voice, dragging out the word and stepping back as someone walks past, "given the look of surprise on your face, you didn't. So, how much is he paying you?"

Chuck pauses, wary, but when Yancy lifts his eyebrows, Chuck knows he isn't kidding. He sighs, making sure no one else is around. "Hundred an hour, plus fifty every time I have to kiss him."

Yancy pauses for a moment, then makes a face, contemplative. "You don't get anything for googly eyes, holding hands or flirty smiles?"

Chuck is too shocked by a grown man's use of the phrase "googly eyes" to respond, and Yancy laughs.

"Damn, kid," he says, shaking his head and smiling. "You came out the loser on this one. The last guy got a thousand for the gig and a hundred for every little thing that was even a little bit gay. Cost Rals maybe five grand for a single afternoon."

"Shit. Why doesn't he just find someone... _real_?"

"Kiddo, you have obviously not spent a lot of time with my brother. His commitment issues have commitment issues. Last time he tried to find someone 'real' he almost died. That, and he doesn't have the time for relationship talks. One thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Eventually they lose interest. Or want too much money."

"You mean he pays people to be -"

"Yeah. Sometimes the family stops by his place, after he does one of these - idiot fake-dates of his, if they like the date well enough."

Chuck opens his mouth to ask if he's going to get a visit, then decides he doesn't want to know. Then something crosses his mind. "How's that work out? The, uh, stopping by his place thing."

Yancy shrugs. "They live in for about a week, Rals calls after the week is out, tells us that the meeting the family thing freaked 'em out. Gives him a few months extra the next time he's gotta introduce someone."

"That... works?"

Yancy's shoulders lift again. "Has for the last few years, yeah."

Chuck hums shortly. "How long'd it take for you to figure it out?"

Yancy makes a face, like he knows what Chuck is implying, and shifts minutely on his feet. "Three's a pattern, kiddo. Third idiot ditched a week after meeting the family, I confronted Rals. Confessed to everything straight up, the big sap."

"Why not tell these guys?" Chuck asks, gesturing at the Becket family, scattered around the room. "The family, I mean."

Yancy stays quiet for a minute, watching his family around the room. A look passes across his face, briefly, that makes Chuck think Yancy carries more than just his brother's relationship problems on his too-small shoulders.

"It'd break their damn hearts, knowing Raleigh couldn't hold someone down." Yancy meets Chuck's gaze, visibly stiffens at whatever he sees there. "Does already," he says, turning away again. "Even with these supposed six-month-long relationships of his. I... let Raleigh keep at it," he mutters, and then goes quiet again.

Chuck opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, Yancy meets his gaze once more.

"But only because I don't know how to make him stop."

 

They both get distracted when one of Becket's aunts comes over to talk to them, congratulate Yancy on the promotion he supposedly got, and Chuck on lasting so long with Raleigh. Eventually she leaves, and they both lean back against the wall, watching the crowd.

 

"You could try finding him a partner," Chuck suggests, after a moment.

"You want me to... play _matchmaker_? For my _brother_?"

"You'd rather he wasted money on idiot kids like me?"

Yancy gets a look on his face again, the one that says he's thinking something over. Then he smirks. "Well, what do you suggest, then, flower boy?"

"Shove it, detective," Chuck says, and bumps his shoulder into Yancy's. Raleigh catches his eye from the bar across the room shortly after, and Chuck smiles and winks. Raleigh smiles back, and the young women around him - cousins, Chuck thinks - giggle into their hands. Turning back to Yancy, he sighs. "What kind of idiots does he bring in for these things?"

Yancy gives him a not-so-subtle once-over, then glances across the room at Raleigh. "Kids that are the exact opposite of you, to be honest. Quiet, easy-going." Chuck makes a face, opens his mouth to retaliate, but Yancy continues. "In need of the money."

Chuck makes a face, confused. "You think I don't need money?"

Becket actually raises an eyebrow, visibly confused at Chuck's question. "That suit is yours," he says. "And it's not cheap. I mean, you own a flower shop, but... you're not in this for the money alone. Which... has me curious, honestly. What  _are_ you in this for?"

Chuck gapes, fish-like, and tries to ignore the way Yancy's eyes begin to squint. Before either of them has a chance to speak, they get interrupted by one of the maybe-cousins that had been surrounding Raleigh, and Chuck gets whisked off to play boyfriend for a while.

Yancy's eyes follow him the whole time.  


 

"Everything okay with Yance?" Raleigh asks, noticing Chuck avoiding Yancy's gaze.

"Just - gave me the 'you hurt him, I hurt you' speech. No problems."

Raleigh glances at Yancy, then back to Chuck. "You guys sort it out?

"Yeah, babe," Chuck says, pressing a kiss to Raleigh's cheek when he catches Raleigh's mother looking at them. She smiles when she sees it. "All good." He leans in close, smirking. "And that's at least another 25, in case you're wondering."

"Honey," Raleigh breathes, lips against Chuck's ear. His tone says friendly, but there's a storm brewing in his eyes when he pulls back. "Not around the family, okay?"

Chuck slaps him on the chest playfully, message received; tucks his head into Raleigh's shoulder like he's blushing, and then decides - _fuck it._

"Let's dance," he whispers, breath ghosting across Raleigh's neck in a way that makes him shiver.

"What?" Raleigh asks, breathless, after a moment.

Chuck pulls his head up, already smirking, and grabs Raleigh by the hands, starts dragging him backwards towards the dance floor. "You and me," he says. "Dancing. Now."

Raleigh stares at him, brow furrowed, but when Chuck just smiles back and lifts his eyebrows in a challenge, his face opens up into a smirk.

"Challenging my title, hey, babe?"

Chuck laughs, loud and open, maybe a little too fake, and pulls Raleigh into his arms. A few of Raleigh's family members look up, smile to themselves, and return to their conversations. Yancy, now over by the bar, gives him a curious look.

Chuck holds Raleigh close the rest of the way to the dancefloor, smiling the whole time. "Mate," he says. "I'm the one with the title. You've got maybe a 'you tried' star, at most."

Raleigh's laughter rings like bells throughout the room, and more than a few of his family members look up in surprise when they hear it. Conversations cease, and the only reason the room doesn't go silent is because the music is still playing.

Chuck, watching Raleigh, can't help the fond smile that overcomes him, and from Raleigh's matching grin, the feeling is mutual.

When Chuck looks away, his gaze falls to Yancy, who is staring in open confusion in his and Raleigh's direction. When Chuck meets his eyes, there's a warning there he's not quite ready to interpret.  


* * *

 

 

Raleigh slams into the store like a hurricane around noon the next day, scaring the crap out of Chuck and the lady he's serving at the register.

"Sorry," Raleigh mutters, when he realises.

"You have a nice afternoon, ma'am," Chuck tells the woman, handing her bouquet to her.

She mumbles something that might be a thank you and scampers out of the store, visibly terrified.

Raleigh flicks the sign to closed and pulls down the blinds as soon as she's gone.

"The hell are you doing, Ray? I'm still open for another four hours."

"Not today, you're not," Raleigh tells him, and stalks towards Chuck. Chuck backs up a step, but Raleigh is on a mission, it seems, because he grabs him by the hand and drags him through the back door, up the stairs to Chuck's apartment. Chuck resists the whole time, until Raleigh actually starts talking. "My family is in town. Here. Now. We're going to lunch."

"You're kidding. I just met them last night!"

"Yeah," Raleigh says. "And they fucking loved you, so now we're having lunch."

Raleigh keeps dragging Chuck up the stairs, gets a little lost, and then Chuck ends up having to drag Raleigh by the hand into his bedroom. "What am I wearing?" he asks, looking at Raleigh.

He gives Chuck a once-over, shakes his head. "You need to shower."

Chuck figures it's better to just do as he's told, at this point, considering the murderous expression on Raleigh's face. He goes into the bathroom, leaving the door open when Raleigh decides to follow, and just strips on the spot, reaching in to turn the shower on.

Once he's got his shirt off, he turns to see Raleigh watching him. "What?"

"Nothing," he says. Then, "You're surprisingly ripped for a florist."

Chuck laughs. "You're surprisingly dense for a guy who's been conning his family for the past few years." Raleigh looks insulted for a moment, so Chuck continues. "I work out, jackass."

"I can see that," Raleigh replies appreciatively, then he shakes himself off and meets Chuck's eyes. "Shower."

Chuck rolls his eyes, but strips the rest of the way down and climbs into the shower. He does at least close the curtain.

"Aren't they worried they'll scare me off, meeting me again so soon?" he asks, cleaning himself as fast as he can. He'd already showered once, but Raleigh was right - there was dirt under his nails, and dust all over his arms from where he'd been cleaning and planting all morning. The water runs red for a moment when he opens a recently healed cut on his shoulder.

"You'd think so, but no. My parents think that's been the problem with the last few relationships I've had. Their first meeting was too formal. So this is the relaxed version."

Chuck, in the midst of shampooing his hair, pokes his head out from behind the curtain and smirks. "You don't look very relaxed," he says.

Raleigh pokes his tongue out at him, staying silent, but he hands Chuck a towel once he's rinsed off, and leads the way back to the bedroom.

"So what am I wearing?" Chuck asks again, drying himself. He pulls on some briefs, then turns to Raleigh, spreading his arms wide. "Come on, _darling_ ," he teases. "Let's play dress up."

Raleigh makes a face, then just stares at Chuck, doing nothing short of admiring him.

"Uh... Becket?"

"Shit," he mutters, caught. "I don't know. Something nice. That doesn't make you look like you're trying to look nice. This is a surprise lunch. So, uh, dress... surprised?"

Chuck rolls his eyes, turns to his drawers, and starts going through the shirts, looking for one of the button downs his dad gave him for Christmas. And then he stops. Because Raleigh keeps talking.

"Those jeans you were wearing the day we met," he says, and when Chuck turns to look at him, Raleigh's looking out the window. "They looked good on you."

Raleigh must hear that Chuck's stopped moving, because he turns to him, confused. "What?"

"You - nothing," he mutters, and turns away to open the next drawer down to find the jeans.

Raleigh spends the rest of the time Chuck gets dressed in silence, and nods his approval when Chuck turns to him, fully dressed.

"Okay," Chuck says. "Now you."

It takes Raleigh a second, and then he tilts his head like a goddamn dog and smirks. "What?"

"I am not taking my fake boyfriend out to lunch with his family while he's dressed like a homeless man. Your jeans have tears in them, and I'm almost sure that shirt was a week overdue for a wash when I saw you in it two days ago. You don't have to shower, but you do have to get changed."

Raleigh's smirk grows until it's a full-blown smile, and Chuck gets progressively more confused as it does so.

"You want me to show up to lunch with my family, the day after they met you, in your clothes, smelling like your soap? You sure that's the kind of message you want to be sending?"

"Fuck off, Becket. Get changed. I'm gonna go down and close up my goddamn shop."

Raleigh's laughter follows him down the stairs, but when he comes down a few minutes later to help Chuck, he's changed, and his hair is wet.

He smells like Chuck.

They wait outside Chuck's store, not even bothering to talk, as Raleigh calls Yancy and organises a lift.

Yancy's car has just pulled up when Raleigh seems to remember their deal. "Look, I - I'll give you five hundred for this, plus the normal hundred an hour and fifty for any kissing. That work for you?"

Chuck thinks back to Yancy, the conversation they'd had the night before. "Don't worry about the extra five hundred," Chuck says, because he's not a complete asshole, but he also runs a flower shop. He pauses for a second, then says "You don't need to buy my silence, Raleigh."

"I'd say otherwise," Yancy pipes up, suddenly standing in front of them, and he easily dodges the punch Raleigh sends towards his crotch. Yancy laughs, raising his arms in surrender. "Cool it, little brother, I didn't hear how much you're paying him. We're all good."

Raleigh growls something unintelligible, then heads towards the car. He climbs in without a backwards glance.

Yancy meets Chuck's eyes, gaze serious, and raises an eyebrow. "Why the hell is my brother wearing your clothes?"

Chuck decides he really doesn't want to know how Yancy knows that they're his clothes, and shrugs. "Because the shit he was wearing before wasn't something I'd let my real boyfriend wear to lunch with his family."

Yancy smirks, then nods. "Fair enough. You just declined five hundred bucks for a surprise lunch. What gives?"

"You said it yourself," Chuck says, and shrugs again. He's not even surprised that Yancy heard everything. Then, honestly, "I don't need the money."

"What do you need, Chuck?" Yancy asks, face suddenly serious. "What the hell do you get out of this, if not the cash?"

Chuck doesn't have an answer for that. He rolls his eyes, throws a half-hearted punch at Yancy's shoulder. "Don't be a dick, Yance," he says instead, heading for the car.

Yancy bristles at the nickname.

"I'm trying to help Raleigh," Chuck continues. "And you, I guess."

"Help me? Help me how?"

Chuck doesn't answer, just pulls open the door and shoves Raleigh until he moves over.

"We're gonna be late for lunch, Yancy. You better hurry up," he says instead, and shuts the door.

**Author's Note:**

> hopefully all of that made sense without the rest of the story to go with it. expect more probably??? idk. depends on if people like it  
> so if you want to see more of this trash, comment. homeskillies.  
> hope you enjoyed that~  
> if not, sorry.  
> HELLO THANK BYE
> 
>  
> 
> just a general edit a million years late (its like may 2017 i know i'm sorrryyyy): I DO PLAN ON CONTINUING THIS. but i have a ridiculously busy life and the harddrive that i had this saved on broke not long after i posted this. BUT. i am working on rewriting it. i'm aiming to complete it in its entirety before posting it. but keep an eye out! (i am so sorry tho like blimey i meant to post updates but i'm trash)


End file.
